I graduated from Plymouth University last year, and live in Cornwall. The career path that I would like to pursue just isn’t present down here at all (more so in London and Manchester, ya know major cities), and it is extremely competitive when it comes to entry roles. I’m talking over 250+ applicants per entry role position. Going through endless rejection emails, it’s made me slightly apprehensive about the idea of why I went to university. I didn’t expect a job to be handed to me on a plate, but I didn’t think I’d be struggling this far down the line, especially because I came out with a First Class Honours.
Additionally, the course that I did has a limited scope. I think I kinda jumped into it for the sake of doing a degree. That’s not saying that I don’t care for it and I’m not passionate about it, but it just gives me very limited career options because of it, if I actually want to put it into use. I’m just feeling very hopeless right now, and it’s got me a little downhearted. I don’t to work a job where I make millions of pounds (would be nice though), I just want something with a comfortable wage and that can make me happy. Not being able to put this degree into actual use yet though has made me feel like I wasted my time at university. Yes, it’s a great achievement to come out with a degree, but what’s the point if I’m not actually using it. For instance, my sister has just finished her degree a week ago, and has already found a job in her field. Makes me feel useless.
I’ve only just turned 23, so maybe I need to do some inner searching, but I just feel very uncertain with my direction right now.
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It’s not clear to me if you’re applying for jobs away from home or not. (You might well need to.)
Unfortunately a degree isn’t necessarily a guaranteed ticket to anything nowadays (depending on subject) as it was in the past. I think that young people are perhaps over-encouraged to study for one and under-encouraged to make it part of an overall career plan based on all the appropriate research. (And I’m afraid that in a competitive field the university you went to matters as well as grade.)
You might want to consider careers which require a degree but don’t necessarily need any particular degree eg teaching (though not saying that’s suitable for everyone by any means) and IIRC some civil service jobs.
You could also try going for other jobs (eg admin) in companies that are related to your degree field – your degree may help with your application and it might provide an indirect route into the field.
Nope. I studied history and not only really enjoyed it, but felt I actually learned useful skills I could apply in life and work, even though what I do now has almost nothing to do with history.
If I went into employment straight out of school I would have felt completely lost and with no confidence. Those four years helped me figure out what I wanted to do with myself.
Speak to your university careers service they can be helpful. Going to university doesn’t automatically guarantee a job. Build your cv think how you might do this. Paid internship (speak to your careers service about this), volunteer, think about how taking a less than perfect job can also boost transferable skills. Don’t give up.
Finished uni 25 years ago, still haven’t got a job in the field of my subject.
But I made some great friends and met my wife (she also doesn’t work in her field) so no regrets.
This may seem trite, but I was watching the Schwarzenegger documentary on Netflix last week. The guy has some inspiring stuff to say, but one thing really stood out.
When asked why he didn’t give up when he was really struggling for years to break into movies, he said
“Because my vision didn’t say anything about giving up! I had to climb that mountain!”
You have a mountain to climb my friend, but your vision seems to be singing about giving up right now. Don’t.
What have you got in your armoury to get these jobs?
Clearly you are living in the wrong place. You aren’t in a position to know people. The thing you’ll be doing when you finally get one is to be determined enough to go to the right places, find a way to make the right contacts, be pushy and get known. People love hiring known quantities. Where are you engineering a chance to talk to the key kinds of people? Where are you generating a chance to show what you can do?
It’s hard to judge when we dont know the industry, but in my experience even picking up the phone or sending extra emails makes a difference
I do. I just went because I thought it’s what I should do. Felt like sixth form/high school made the decision for me and there was no career planning. I started with computer science but lost interest in it and I didn’t like where I was staying (this was 2009 when university accommodation was crammed so I got shoved in a house, which was a shit hole). After six months I restarted the next year taking English Language which I found super interesting but I’d had a decent paying job between and I enjoyed going out drinking far too much. I had no self discipline and after another year I quit again.
I wish I’d become an electrician.
I don’t regret it at all. I loved my time there. Met my future husband there. I studied philosophy, whilst it’s not directly related to my job, I use the skills from it all the time. I wouldn’t be able to be in my field without a degree either.
What I’d say though is that on average, over the long-run, having a degree is worth it in the sense of increased lifetime earnings. Not to mention other benefits like social ones, the experience you had. But that’s statistics and you’re an individual, there’s always people who are under or over the average trajectory. There’s no use focusing on whether it was worth it, you’ve done it now, so look at what you can control.
no because I got a good job out of it …. But did I really require a degree? No its just companies arbitrarily demanding you have one.
That’s probably because of your uni
Not in the slightest – I grew up on a council estate called “dogshit mountain” locally and all my friends who stayed are on minimum or near minimum wage.
It opened a lot of doors.
No, I don’t regret it at all. I actively chose not to pursue a career in my field though.
In my opinion, university isn’t only about studying. It’s also an experience. It allows you to grow so much as a person.
You’ll be fine. I did a BA in Classics and Literature and a Masters in Postmodernism, Detective Fiction and Westerns. Never regretted it.
Not the course but I wish I had gone to a different uni. My grades weren’t the best but I think I could have got into MMU with a foundation year. I went to Staffordshire which didn’t so much teach you as expect you to teach yourself or just wait for you to drop out. They didn’t really give a shit about you after they got your student loans, drop out rate was about 30% per year.
No, not once. I studied Computer Science back in the late 90s/early 2000s. I do, however, regret not working harder. I was already a decent coder before starting the degree and skipped through most of it without really paying attention. I didn’t do brilliantly for the first two years but I then did a year’s work placement and that sorted me out – I came back into the final year and carried on the 9am – 5pm work ethic and turned it around. I ended up with a 2:1 and was quite close to a first in the end, if I’d worked a bit harder I would have got there. Not sure what difference it would have made, but would have been nice to have a first class degree!
No, I have a really good career making good money at a relatively young age, graduated 11 years ago, and the springboard for it all was the finance grad scheme I got onto. Without uni I wouldn’t have. I don’t give a shit about “working in my field” as some say. But yeah, I had colleagues who fucked up job interviews or got a 2.2 and didn’t get a decent grad job and most of them have had it pretty rough. Luck of the draw but me personally I can’t regret my degree cos of what it’s afforded me.
Btw I didn’t go to a top uni, but I focussed on the job market heavily and made sure I got bang for my buck in that regard.
I hated University.
I went to one relatively close to home, but far enough away to merit living there during the week. I came back on a weekend to work in a bar/on a door.
I was a bit older than most freshers, having done the first two years of my degree at a college. So I wasn’t interested in living the student life. I also opted for a private studio apartment instead of sharing in halls.
Living away was fine & everything. But University itself was horrible. The lecturers literally turned up, delivered their lecture and left. They would never field any questions or would never have any discussions with anyone. And that’s if they turned up at all, quite often an email would be sent out “lecture cancelled – notes uploaded to blackboard” (blackboard being the University e-learning portal). I paid £10k for my course and I’ve never met one of my lecturers as he cancelled every single one of his lectures.
However I’m proud of my degree and happy that I got it, so as much as I hated my time there I don’t regret going to University.